"Detection of Morphine in Opioid Abusers Hair by GC/MS "

Thirty hair samples were collected from the male opioid abusers in which the presence of morphine in their urine samples was confirmed by Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) analyses. The hair samples were washed, cut into small pieces and extracted in a mixture of methanol-triflouroacetic acid (9:1). The methanolic phase was evaporated to dryness under nitrogen stream and derivitized by addition of N-methyl-N-trimethylsilyl triflouroacetamide (MSTFA) and 1% trimethyl iodosilane (TMIS) with sonication. One micro liter of each derivitized sample was injected into a Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer (GC/MS) system consisting of a capillary column and finnigan MS with selective ion monitoring (SIM) mode. The selected mass for ions codeine and morphine were 370 and 429, respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) was set at 0.03ng/mg of the hair. By using the above procedure, morphine was detectable in all of the examined samples and this method is capable to detec low levels of morphine in hair for a long period of time following the last intake of the drug